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You may not have realized it by looking out your window at the new snow this morning, but the Twins’ Opening Day is just two weeks from today. That means it’s probably time to start taking a more serious look at how the team is rounding in to shape in Fort Myers.

Although Spring Training has officially been in gear for about a month, it’s usually pretty pointless to pay a lot of attention to individual performances during the first couple of weeks of Grapefruit League games. Veteran hitters are just shaking the rust off and working on specific things, such as hitting to this or that specific field or hitting particular pitches. Established pitchers use each early outing as an opportunity to refine deliveries or work on specific pitches. Results are of secondary concern.

But as the team gets down to it’s final dozen games or so, the hitters start wanting more plate appearances in the games and the pitchers start using all their pitches as they focus more on getting outs. We should also see with some level of certainty how the starting pitching spots are firming up as the Twins adjust their rotation so that they have pitchers lined up they way they want to open the season. Their final 10 Spring Training games will start this Thursday against the Yankees.

It’s a good thing, too, that we can conveniently discount performances up to this point, because a lot of those performances have been less than awe-inspring thus far. If you were inclined to predict the season’s outcome based on the first few weeks of Spring Training results, it would be pretty difficult to find cause to believe the 2013 Twins will be much better than last season’s version.

While it’s encouraging to see Justin Morneau looking like his former MVP-level self and Aaron Hicks looking like a legitimate Major League centerfielder in the making, every fan has known all along that it’s the pitching rotation that had to improve significantly if the Twins are to have a chance to show significantly improved results this summer and there hasn’t been too much to get excited about in that area yet.

With Scott Diamond certain to start the season on the Disabled List, there are two rotation spots up for grabs among several of the Twins’ young arms. Kyle Gibson was expected to contend for a spot, but he’s already been sent across the parking lot to minor league camp, so he’ll be starting his season in Rochester. Liam Hendriks is another contender, but he’s struggled in most of his appearances. Hitters have averaged .295 against him and have hit him up four home runs in his 15 innings of work. His WHIP is a lackluster 1.40.

But here’s the kicker… Hendriks arguably has had a better spring, statistically speaking, than any of the three “locks” for Twins rotation spots, Vance Worley, Kevin Correia and Mike Pelfrey. Those three haven’t been as prone to giving up gopher balls as Hendriks, but through the past weekend, hitters are batting better than .300 against each of them and Worley’s 1.83 WHIP is the best of the trio.

Cole DeVries (Photo: Hannah Foslein – Getty Images

On the other hand, if you want to look for encouraging signs for the Twins among their starting pitching corps, you can take a look in the direction of Cole DeVries. DeVries has only thrown 10 innings in his three starts, but he’s not giving up many hits (.121 batting average against), has not given up any home runs, has a tidy little 0.70 WHIP and, if you’re in to small sample size ERAs, he’s sporting a 0.90 in that category, too. Of course, “small sample size” caveats apply to all stat lines at this point.

Another rotation candidate that’s been at least moderately impressive is a guy who has only thrown one inning for the Twins this spring, Samuel Deduno. While he hasn’t been in camp for the past couple of weeks, Deduno has been getting work in the rotation for the Dominican Republic’s entry in the World Baseball Classic, where he’s had some success. In fact, he was the starting (and winning) pitcher for the Dominicans in their victory over Team USA last week.

Because Deduno is not on the Twins’ 40-man roster at this point, the team would have to make a roster move to keep him when they move north to start the season. Since they hope to have Diamond available by mid-April, it’s quite possible they’ll only need their initial fifth starter for one game before Diamond is activated. That being the case, Hendriks should still be considered the leading candidate for that spot.

So here’s what the rotation seems to be setting up to look like, to my eyes:

Opening Day starter: Vance Worley (started Sunday, will likely start again Friday and have his last Spring Training Start Wednesday, March 27… five days before Opening Day)

#5 starter: Liam Hendriks (may only be needed for one start, March 7, before Diamond is activated in mid-April)

That’s all pure speculation on my part, of course. The point is merely that, with two weeks remaining before the scheduled Opening Day, now is when these pitchers need to start showing me something more than they have already… something to make me believe they’ll make up a better rotation than the disaster we saw on the mound last season.

Pretty sure the Twins HAD to win tonight or TK would have kicked their ass. But then again, Cole really pitched a beautiful game. Anytime the home team can work with a shutout of the visiting team, they really don’t have to do too much. For that, Cole DeVries is voted today’s BOD!

Kudos to the Twins cleaning crew who got the ballpark ready for Game 2 of today’s split doubleheader in just a couple of hours.

Before we take on Game 2, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out Brian Dozier’s “infield hit” below. I’m pretty sure it’s something you’ve never seen happen before. This, folks, is why coaches taught us to “always run everything out!”

On to Game 2. Cole De Vries has been called upon to make a spot start tonight for the Twins, though he won’t find a Twins jersey in his locker when he shows up to get dressed for the game. Tonight is “turn back the clock” night and the Twins will be wearing Minneapolis Millers uniforms. The Royals, likewise, will be wearing throwback KC Blues uniforms.

Where to begin? So many little tidbits being passed along after the Twins beat the Royals 5-1.

Let’s start with the obvious… that was a doubleheader SWEEP of the Royals that our guys completed tonight. Yes, I know it isn’t exactly the Yankees… or even the White Sox… but hey, the Twins are looking up at the Royals in the standings, so let’s not minimize this too much!

MLB.com Twins beat writer Rhett Bollinger tweeted a couple of additional little fun facts after the game. For example, this was the Twins’ first doubleheader sweep since September 13… FOUR years ago. Yes, September of 2008 was the last time the Twins took both ends of a doubleheader. In fact, winning even one game of a doubleheader would have been an improvement over last season when the Twins went 0-8 in doubleheader games. And finally, with today’s sweep,the Twins completed the month of June with a 14-13 record… the first winning record for a month since July last year.

Joe Mauer continued his hot hitting, going 2 for 4 and Josh Willingham apparently decided he didn’t want to let Trevor Plouffe lead the team in HRs without him, so he launched his 16th of the season, as Plouffe did this afternoon.

But the story of the game… and our Boyfriend of the Day… was starting pitcher Cole DeVries. The Minnesota kid went six innings while giving up just five hits and one walk and striking out six Royals. The bullpen of Alex Burnett, Tyler Robertson and Jared Burton each threw a scoreless inning of relief in support of DeVries.